Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Jean-Louis Petit

Jean Louis Petit
(1674 – 1750)

French surgeon and anatomist, Jean Louis Petit was born in Paris in on March 13, 1674.  His family rented an apartment at his house to Alexis Littre (1658 – 1726), a French anatomist. Petit became an apprentice of Littre at seven years of age, helping him in the dissections for his lectures and at an early age became the assistant in charge of the anatomic amphitheater.

Because of Petit’s dedication to anatomy and medicine, in 1690 at the age of sixteen, became a disciple of a famous Paris surgeon, Castel.

In 1692, Petit entered the French army and performed surgery in two military campaigns. By 1693 he started delivering lectures and was accepted as a great surgeon, being invited to the most difficult operations.  In 1700 he was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Military School in Paris and in the same year he received the degree of Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Paris.

In 1715 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. He was appointed by the King as the first Director General of the Royal Academy of Surgery when it was founded in 1731.

Petit’s written works are of historical importance.  “Traite des Maladies des Os” ( A Treatise on Bone Diseases);  “Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Operation” (A Treatise on Surgical Diseases and their Operations” This last book was published posthumously in 1774. He also published a monograph on hemorrhage, another on lachrymal fistula, and others.

He was one of the first to perform choIecystotomy and mastoidotomy. His original tourniquet design for amputations saved many in the battlefield and the design of the same surgical instrument today has not changed much since its invention by him.

His name is remembered in the lumbar triangle, also called the "triangle of Petit", and the abdominal hernia that can ensue through that area of weakness, the lumbar hernia or "Petit's hernia".

Sources:
1. “Jean Louis Petit – A Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings” Hayne, AP San Fran Western Lancet 1875 4: 446-454
2. “Oeuvres compl?tes de Jean-Louis Petit” 1837 Imprimerie de F. Chapoulaud
3. Extraits de l'eloge de Jean-Louis Petit Ius dans Ia seance publique de I' Academie royale de chirurgie du 26 mai 1750” Louis A. Chirurgie 2001: 126 : 475- 81

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Update to the website and library catalog

Published: Sunday, February 13, 2022 07:00 | Hits: 2554

Dr. Miranda's Ex-Libris  bookplate

UPDATED: After a long hiatus, I am happy to report that this website has been updated to a newer version of Joomla!, and still hosted by GoDaddy. The "look" of the website has not changed, but the software is faster and with a higher level of security. This work was done by my good friend from Greece, Christopher Mavros, who is an expert at designing web templates, web sites, and Joomla! extensions.  This also meant that my library catalog was left unfinished for a long time and this required lots of additional work.

First, the library needed new and updated bookplates, which were printed by BookplateInk, a USA based company that I strongly recommend. In case anyone wonders, the famous anatomists that are depicted in the bookplate are Harvey, Vesalius, Spigelius, and Albinus. Second, I needed software that could create the code to publish the titles of the library online. This work was done by my daughter Evelyn, to whom I am deeply grateful.

Recataloging the library is an ongoing effort. This will also require repairing and rebinding some of the older and damaged books. Due to this, during the next weeks and months this listing will change, but for a bibliophile this is not work, but pleasure.

As many of you know I am a collector of old and antique medical and anatomy books and I also have several copies of some of these books in different languages.

The oldest book in the library dates from 1696 and is "Opera Chirurgica Anotomica Conformata al Moto Circolare Del Sangue, & Altre Inuenziono De'piu Moderni. Aggivuntovi Un Trattato Della Peste" by Paolo Barbette. I recently acquired the 1713 book by Aulus Cornelius Celsus "De Medicina, Libri Octo".

Another book I am very proud of is not old, but still a rare book. It is "The Fabric of the Human Body, An Annotated Translation of the 1543 and 1555 Editions of “De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem", by Drs. Garrison and Hast This monumental translation work took twenty years and only 948 copies of this book were published in 2014. Completely sold out, it is today a rare book!

There are many other books that are important to me, either by its rarity (for those who know.... "The Green Book") or its controversy, as are the books by Pernkopf and Stefano Mancini.

You are welcome to peruse my library catalog, but be forewarned; I am not selling any of my books. Should you want to find a copy, you can use Abebooks.com as a great source for old and new books.

Dr. Miranda